Petronas, Mercedes Benz’s Formula 1 (F1) racing team, is off to a rip-roaring start in 2026. George Russell won the year’s first Grand Prix event in Australia, while his teammate, Kimi Antonelli, came in second. In the second event of the year, the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai, Kimi came in first and George second, besting the field of 18 other drivers.
It’s the 77th year of Formula 1 racing. It’s also a year with a new “formula.” What’s a formula? Great question. It’s the specifications under which F1 cars are designed, built and raced, including weight, power units (engines), transmission, tires, fuel, safety features and more. In Formula 1, each car—including the engine—is built from scratch by one of 10 teams called “constructors.” Each constructor builds two cars and selects two drivers.
Thus, in F1 races there is the race, and then there are races within the race. Each driver competes against his teammate in a nearly identical car while also competing against a field of 20 other drivers to win the race. Each season F1 recognizes the best driver and best constructor team. Sometimes the best drivers also drive the best cars, but not always. In 2026 Petronas has the early constructor and driver lead. In 2024 and 2025 McLaren won the constructors’ title, but other teams fielded the best drivers.
FUN FACTS: F1 cars go over 220 mph. They clock 0-60 mph in 1.8 seconds. Pit stops, including jacking up the car, changing four tires and letting the car down, take less than two seconds. F1 cars have 300-400 sensors relaying data to the pit wall team who advises the driver during the race. Cars are limited to 110 kg (~40 gallons) of fuel whose flow rate is measured 6,000 times/second. The F1 “formula” requires all cars to have at least 1 liter of fuel in the tank at the end of the race, and teams precisely monitor fuel. Less fuel equals less weight; less weight equals more speed. However, disqualification results when the car finishes with less than a liter of gas.
Formula 1 racing is difficult to understand at first because the technical rules and strategies built around driving the car are not obvious. The best introduction to the sport is Netflix’ Drive to Survive series, where behind-the-scenes access illuminates the challenge of this sport.
F1, the movie by Apple Original Films starring Brad Pitt, won this year’s Oscar for Best Sound. Watching the movie in a theater gives the audience the feel of being in an F1 car. And if anyone was wondering, yes—those are Brad Pitt’s real tattoos.
